The Winona and La Crosse Districts of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge will be hiring six students this summer, four in Winona and two in La Crosse to work on a Youth Conservation Corps crew.

Among the recent cases in Buffalo County Circuit Court, 34-year-old Brandey Lorenzo of Independence, was placed on probation two years for child neglect and entered a 2-year deferred sentence agreement for felony possession of methamphetamine.

The Swiss-based Viking River Cruises has announced it will build six cruise ships, each capable of holding up to 300 passengers, to cruise American rivers, including the Mississippi River as far north as St. Paul.

The Winona County Board of Commissioners Tuesday discussed a petition submitted by property owners along County Road 25 seeking improvements to the road.

Lake Pepin Ice

02/25/15 04:51 PM

The ice on Lake Pepin measured 24 inches thick at its deepest location according to the second measurements taken by the U-S Army Corps of Engineers Wednesday.

The Corps measured 24 inches of ice about one mile above Reeds Landing which is at the south end of the lake. Ice depths throughout the 17-mile lake ranged from 16 inches at Reeds Landing to 8 inches deep at the north end of the lake.

The measurements are used by the shipping industry to determine when the first towboats try to make it through Lake Pepin to reach St. Paul to open the navigation season. The measurements are taken once a week.

Miller Ingenuity of Winona awarded the first place prize for The Miller Ingenuity Challenge at California State University Northridge to both James McCloskey, a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Lily Thiemens, an English major, who worked together on their winning submission.

Tri-County Electric Cooperative's Board of Directors and staff met with local legislators recently in St. Paul to discuss some of the challenges in the electric industry and to offer solutions that can benefit the members of the not-for-profit utility.

Western Technical College, in partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council, will host a seminar on Volunteer Recruitment and Retention, Saturday, March 14th, from 9 a.m. - Noon at the Lunda Center, 319 N. Seventh St., La Crosse.